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How to choose your first wok.
Fashionable attribute which is in an arsenal of any advanced culinary specialist today. A sort from China. It is absolutely universal. In it it is possible to fry, cook soups, to use instead of a double boiler. Get acquainted - it is a wok.
Woks actively are on sale in usual supermarkets and online stores, buy them as a gift and for themselves, and the price varies from 10 to 100 $. There are woks ceramic, pig-iron, steel, one handle, with two, with a flat bottom and convex … How to choose the correct wok from all this variety? Actually, everything isn't so difficult. The main thing, will be defined why you need this frying pan!
So, if you want that the fashionable attribute took not enough place, was easy and convenient in use that food on it didn't burn slightly and it was possible to use it both on the gas stove, and on electric, then the best choice – a ceramic wok or a wok from nonstick thin steel. At these woks a flat bottom (for the account of ease such wok would be very unstable, if it had a convex bottom) therefore it is possible to use them on any plate.
If you want that taste of food revealed completely if you are an admirer or the fan of all authentic (that is you want to cook exactly as it is done in China) that to you only the real Chinese wok with a round bottom is necessary. It is plus at this wok weight, but there are also minuses – the steel wok with a round bottom is suitable only for naked flame (read – for the gas stove or a burner)! The steel wok with one handle best of all is suitable for frying stir-fray. For preparation of soups of frying in hot fan and stewing – a steel wok with two handles.
Pig-iron woks are used rather seldom. They are heavy and inconvenient in application. China uses them only in northern provinces for long stewing of meat, but not for frying. Frying in a wok assumes that you need to lift often a wok, to twist it, and with a cast-iron pan, also filled with products to do it oh as it is inconvenient!
How to use a wok
Ceramic woks are simple in application – washed, and put on pita. And here the steel real Chinese wok is required to be prepared for use process. Before the first application the steel wok is required to be washed out and burned: then food in it won't burn slightly and it will turn out more tasty! How to prepare the real wok for the first use? Pour in it the boiling water and dissolve 1 tsp of baking soda. Leave for 15 minutes. Then merge water and rub walls a bast to scrape off an oil covering (technical oils). Rinse a wok and carefully wipe. Burn it, having put on a high heat. Wipe an internal surface of a wok with a paper towel or a napkin which need previously to be dipped in oil. Reduce fire to weak and leave for 15 minutes that walls of a wok became impregnated with oil. After you burn a wok, it will turn black, and over time on it the covering which will give non-stick effect is formed.
All this long preparation for use has also the positive moment: the burn and peeled wok won't need to be washed then! Especially, it is never necessary to grate a wok a bast with Fairy! The correct cleaning of a wok after cooking assumes wiping of a frying pan a napkin dry. As a last resort, the wok can be rinsed water and to wipe a napkin. If you nevertheless had to wash a wok with detergents, it is necessary to burn a frying pan once again – otherwise taste of the food cooked in it will be absolutely another!
What else can it is useful when using a wok
Cover. The cover for a wok isn't obligatory, but if you buy a wok with a cover, you watch that it was a convex form. The cover is necessary to a wok for preparation of dishes on couple, soups, sauces, baked puddings.
Scoop in the form of a paddle, the tool for stirring of ingredients in a wok;
Lushao – a ladle for taking out of ingredients during frying in hot fan.
The bamboo double boiler – it is ideal for steam boiling in a wok. It is important that diameter of a double boiler was no more than diameter of the wok.
As cook in a wok
In a wok food can be fried, cooked, stewed, fried in hot fan and on couple. If you plan to fry food in a wok, choose flavorless oil and on what it is possible to fry at high temperatures. We will tell, 100% sesame oil aren't suitable for frying in a wok, and here vegetable oil, oil for hot fan, sesame oil with addition soy are excellent options. For correct to frying in a wok, at first it is required to heat a wok properly on fire (3-5 min.), then to add oil, to warm up it (2 more min.) but only then to add ingredients. Never put vegetables, fish or meat in a cold wok – it will only spoil a product, will give it raw smack.
The most popular cooking method of food in a wok – stir-fray or a fry with stirring. For stir-fry the steel wok with one handle best of all will approach. Stir-fray is good the fact that he keeps its aroma, color, structure and nutrition value at the preparing product. At this way of processing ingredients it is necessary to throw and stir slowly constantly by means of a rake that they didn't stick to a bottom and walls of a wok. The principle stir-fry is very simple and logical: at first prepare ingredients, heat a wok, heat oil, I will jam to put ingredients in the sequence corresponding to their preparation time. That is meat prepares longer than vegetables therefore at first put meat pieces in a wok, then – vegetables. Therefore cooking noodles with seafood, at first we fry shrimps, then we add noodles.
All ingredients for frying in a wok have to be well crushed and to be approximately equal size. The basic rule when frying with stirring – if you began business, you shouldn't be interrupted. Prepare the crushed products, and also the necessary seasonings, in advance, as in the course of frying time for preparation won't be any more. Spread out them on small pans, arrange them in that order in which they will be added to a wok. If you cook a large number of meat, a bird, seafood, then cook it in the partial portions to avoid stewing of a product. Before loading in a wok of the next portion don't forget to reheat it.
Food cooking method, the second for popularity, in a wok – usual frying. The technology is just the same as at a stir-fray, however when frying oil is add 2-3 times more that dishes was more brilliant (oily).
In a wok it is also possible to fry in hot fan. For this purpose special oil for hot fan which doesn't burn is required. Oil needs to be added much – to the middle or 2/3 woks. However it doesn't mean that the product will turn out fatter! At the correct preparation frying in hot fan it is even more useful, than usual – heated to high temperature which is provided by a wok, oil isn't absorbed, and just gives to a product the crackling gold crust, without getting inside and without giving fat smack. Of course, for this purpose oil needs to be heated very well. And to use only oil for hot fan!
Stewing – this way means stewing in a wok of pieces of meat or vegetables on weak fire in a large amount of water, with oil and soy sauce. Before stewing products, slightly fry them by method stir-fray. Don't forget to stir slowly them during stewing.
In a wok it is also possible to steam. This cooking method of food is good for those who prefer refinement, tenderness, ease of food and not haste of process of preparation. appreciate its ease and appeal, tenderness and refinement. The wok with two handles will be suitable for the cooking couple best. Just add to a water wok (so that it on 1 finger didn't reach to the bottom double boilers), put in it a bamboo double boiler, place in it banana leaves or parchment, and from above put products. Cover a double boiler, put a wok on fire and cook depending on a product Of 30 min. till 2 o'clock). In process of bringing away of water in a wok, it needs to be added. Be careful when you take out a double boiler from a wok not to be scalded! After use carefully wash out water and dry a bamboo double boiler. And a wok, as well as it is necessary, just wipe dry with a napkin: then this irreplaceable frying pan will serve to you really long and will present unforgettable gastronomic impressions after preparation in it a set of amazingly tasty dishes!
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